ORSE MADE FOR the ladder to get down into the house. I followed him. The two guys with him looked like they were from the house. They were in Italian sharkskin suits. Dressed for indoor work.
The one who had manned the heavy machine gun introduced himself as Mimi. He reached into a store shed on the roof and hauled out two M-15 automatic rifles and stuffed his pockets with clips. The other man, Furio, stuck two Uzi machine pistols into his belt and hefted two more. There were enough weapons in that little shed to fight off an army.
Just as well. I followed the men down. Before we even reached the second floor, the house shook from a massive impact from below. A rolling cloud of acrid smoke bubbled up the wide stairwell. Clutching a handkerchief over my nose and mouth I kept low by the sides of the stairs as I hurried down.
From the second floor landing I watched a huge man plow through the smoking remains of the heavy paneled double entrance doors. The lobby looked like a baronial wreck, like something in a World War Two movie.
What had been the main entrance to the house was now a hole with charred edges, the marble floor littered with piles of debris.
The intruder looked like a fast, enormous beetle. He was wrapped in a long black leather puffer coat. He wore a heavy-duty gas mask and he carried two glock machine pistols, with sniper length extended barrels and foot-long high-capacity magazines.
He saw us and I ducked back behind the marble bannister. Horse was in the same position on the other side of the stairs with Furio and Mimi. The man lifted and aimed the gun in his left hand.
He paused and held the gun up, in position, but he didn’t have a clear line of sight at any of us, and he didn’t waste a shot. He crouched low and kept the gun trained on the bannister as he made his way directly around for the steps and down, to the basement I guessed. He was clearly very familiar with the layout of the house.
Horse didn’t risk following him until he was well out of sight. I expected the target to wait near the top of the stair with a clear shot back up, where we would be sure to follow, but he didn’t pause. He was headed straight for the back of the basement. I saw a heavy metal door and I guessed that would be Carmine’s panic room.
From inside his jacket, he reached in for what looked like a couple of stick grenades. I drew my handgun. Even with the long barrel, against what he was carrying, my weapon felt pretty puny. I also figured, judging by his extraordinary bulk, he must have been wearing substantial body armor, although it didn’t seem to slow him down much.
There was no way I could let him get to Carmine so I opened up with as much fire as I judged I could spare. It was only suppression and deterrence, at best. The most I would hope was to help to pin the target and contain him. I also needed to consider how much ammunition I had in the pistol and my two spare magazines.
The look of concern that Horse flashed me before I leaned out to fire made me feel better about this whole enterprise, but, even with four of us above him, our target was formidable and well prepared.
Hanging back until I was ready for a shot then flashing out as fast as I could, I moved up and down behind the wall to lessen the chance of him getting a lucky shot back at me. It meant my aim was haphazard at best, and he took advantage of the space.
Since I had seen the grenades, I was surprised he didn’t send any up the stairs that told me two things at least. He had planned out his attack in minute and careful detail and, he had brought the exact explosives he thought he would need. Meaning he had none to spare.
As well as good information, that said that he very likely would have had a strong military background. I was on his right flank and it looked to be his stronger side. Carmine’s two men dashed across to catch up with me so the next time I leaned out to put down fire, there were three of us answering the big guy’s two fast Glocks.
He dodged or evaded everything we sent down at him. The three of us on his right put out a barrage of fire, and Horse shot across him from the other side. His jacket burst and split in a few places, but the big man hardly flinched. He faced us and fired back.
The second time, we were better. When the three of us let off a co-ordinated blast, the big down-filled coat was ripped all over. I heard at least two shells make dull strikes into his Kevlar. This time he staggered as he shot back, two handed.
He had phenomenal guts as well as strength. It doesn’t matter how much armor you have, firing into the teeth of four guns is no small thing, and he didn’t hesitate.
Mimi had brought the two heavy rifles down with him. One was across his back and he was firing in a rapid beat. He darted across the opening to the stairwell as he put out a volley of shots. The big man at the bottom made a shot through the leg of Mimi’s pants and another went right by his ear.
Mimi getting across the stairway gave us another space to fire down, but it also put Mimi out of position. Being right handed, he had to come twice as far round to make a shot. I saw that and concentrated my fire at the target’s right to keep him from having time to get a bead up to his left.
I had to reload. As I ejected the magazine and readied the next, Furio stepped out and put down a relentless stream of fire. He looked like a textbook FBI marksman in the classic stance with his feet wide apart. As soon as I was ready, I stood out next to him. I held the gun out with my arms extended and straight, sighted along the barrel with my head cocked on one side.
Horse jumped out and made a run at the target.
The man hung back in the hail of fire. I ducked and headed down after Horse, getting a stream of shots right across the man’s foot. He hesitated for a split second, looking towards the panic room door. We all opened fire right away and Furio hit the Glock in the guy’s right hand. It clattered to the floor.
The guy looked down. To get it, he’d have to come forward. He would be exposed. We all saw it and I could see that he felt it. We weren’t prepared for his alternate plan, though.
Slamming his right arm back hard, he rammed a grenade into the wall, which turned out to be stud. As the grenade exploded he rolled away to his left and we were momentarily blinded. Through the smoke we heard his footsteps as he ran and we all ran hard after him. The hole in the stud wall led to a big underground garage.
We shot everything we had after the big man as he ran. He had stopped firing back. He ran up a ramp to where the garage door was opening. The remains of his jacket fell away in shreds and I saw the hulk of his body armor. It must have been a double suit or more. I was amazed that he could move so fast with all of that weight on his back.
Before we could catch him he was at the open door. A big motorcycle engine fired up. Horse reached the garage door and I caught up with him in time to see the man roar away on a high-saddled trail bike. He wove fast and disappeared into the trees. We all sent a volley of shots after him. I fired at the wheels with the best aim I could make in the time, but I knew there was practically no chance of connecting with the target.
Horse’s eyes were fixed on me. The heat in his stare made me feel naked. The rush and frenzy in that kind of a situation had made my heart race and adrenaline was coursing through my veins. My whole body was hot and on high alert. I would have jumped Horse right there and then. The look on his face said he had the same thought.
The chemistry crackled so hot, that Mimi and Furio probably smelled it. We all burst out laughing as we turned slowly back and shook our heads in something like amazement. As we passed the remains of his coat, all of us tensed when we hear a beep.
“It’s okay,” Horse said, stepping toward the crumpled pile. “It’s just a text message.” He fished in the pockets and found a phone. As he looked at the screen, his face drained. He showed it to me.
On the screen was my picture. Underneath it was my name and my home address. Above was the heading, ‘Next target.’
As I stared at the screen, I was aware of my own phone beeping. In a daze I fished it out of my pocket.
It carried on beeping and it took a moment before I even thought to look at it. The text on the screen of my phone was not much less of a shock.
“This one’s an F&K.” I showed the screen to Horse. His name was on a message headed, ‘New York Bureau. All active agents. L & S’
He handed back my phone. “What does ‘L & S’ mean?”
I told him, “Locate and Secure. But we use ‘F & K’ for what it really means.” I looked him in the eye. “Find and Kill.”
Unfazed, he didn’t miss a beat, “And that arrived at almost the same moment as the message to our lumbering friend?”
“Yeah,” I held up my phone, still a little disbelieving, “But this is official. You saw, it’s from the bureau.”
“You don’t think there’s a connection?”
“How could there be?” I said. He seemed to take a moment before deciding not to press the point.
We both shook hands with the two guards. We had worked as a forceful and effective team together and I was impressed by their courage and skill. Horse was, too and he told them so. We’d been in a life-and-death kinetic combat situation and we didn’t even have a clue to each other’s names.
“It gave me a momentary flashback to my time in the field.” He told Mimi. “Great job handling the heavy artillery upstairs. But, really, kudos, stepping out in front of the guy the way that you did.”